World Footy News

On Wednesday, May the 15th, the AFL will select the top 50 female players in Australia, with AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou calling out the names of the top 10 players.

Friends and family of the nominees will be invited to attend the draft at simultaneous presentations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, which will be linked up by video conferencing.

The draft and the game are both initiatives of the Melbourne Football Club, main sponsor of Australia’s top women’s league, the VWFL, and the Melbourne sector of the draft will be conducted in the club’s boardroom.

From the draft, the two teams that will represent the Melbourne and Western Bulldogs Football Clubs during the inaugural AFL Women’s Exhibition game will be selected. The women’s teams will face off at the MGC as a curtain raiser to the AFL game played by the two clubs during AFL Women’s Round on Saturday June 29.

The exhibition game will be the first ever AFL sanctioned women’s match between two top flight clubs, though many AFL clubs do currently have ties with local women’s clubs through sponsorship and affiliation.

AFL General Manager National and International Development Andrew Dillon said there will be a big pool of playing talent to choose from.

“Already nominations have been received from current players and talented athletes from other sports. I’m anticipating the match will be of a very high standard,” he said

He also said he hoped the game would foster the involvement of more women in the game, be it though playing, coaching, umpiring, trainers and other volunteers.

The top players from All-Australian teams, High Performance Academies and 2013 state teams will be directly invited to nominate themselves for the draft, whilst clubs can nominate their best players aged 17 years and over via a nomination form on the AFL Community Club website. Players who do not live near a club and athletes from other sports are also welcome to apply.

Nominations close on Friday the 10th of May.